• enPR: wĭt, IPA: /wɪt/

wit

1. (now usually in the plural, pluralonly) Sanity.

   He's gone completely out of his wits.

2. (obsolete usually in the plural) The senses.
3. Intellectual ability; faculty of thinking, reasoning.

   Where she has gone to is beyond the wit of man to say.

4. The ability to think quickly; mental cleverness, especially under short time constraints.

   My father had a quick wit and a steady hand.

5. Intelligence; common sense.

   The opportunity was right in front of you, and you didn't even have the wit to take it!

   • 1460-1500, The Towneley Playsː

     I give the wit, I give the strength, of all thou seest, of breadth and length; thou shalt be wonder-wise, mirth and joy to have at will, all thy liking to fulfill, and dwell in paradise.

   • 1609, William Shakespeare, ''Sonnet 23:

     O, learn to read what silent love hath writ:

     To hear with eyes belongs to love's fine wit.

6. Humour, especially when clever or quick.

   The best man's speech was hilarious, full of wit and charm.

   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 37:

     ...the cemetery—which people of shattering wit like Sampson never tired of calling ‘the dead centre of town’...

7. A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes; someone witty.

   Your friend is quite a wit, isn't he?

   • 1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: Printed [by R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, OCLC 316392309 ↗, Act III, scene iv ↗:

     Tuc[ca]. […] Can thy Author doe it impudently enough? / Hiſt[rio]. O, I warrant you, Captaine: and ſpitefully inough too; he ha's one of the moſt ouerflowing villanous wits, in Rome. He will ſlander any man that breathes; If he diſguſt him. / Tucca. I'le know the poor, egregious, nitty Raſcall; and he haue ſuch commendable Qualities, I'le cheriſh him: {{...}

• (intellectual ability) See also Thesaurus:intelligence

• Italian: senno
• Portuguese: mentalidade, sanidade
• Russian: ра́зум
• Spanish: mentalidad, cordura

• German: Verstand, Intellekt
• Italian: ingegno vivace, arguzia
• Portuguese: intelectual, intelecto
• Russian: ум
• Spanish: intelectualidad, intelecto

• German: Auffassungsgabe
• Italian: arguzia, genio, acutezza
• Portuguese: agudeza, agudez
• Russian: ум
• Spanish: agudeza, inteligencia, ingenio, mentalidad, gracia, listeza

• French: mot d'esprit
• German: Witz
• Italian: senso umoristico, motto di spirito, spirito, prontezza di spirito, brio
• Portuguese: humorístico, humor, engraçado
• Russian: остроу́мие
• Spanish: humor, gracia, mordacidad, chiste espontáneo

• French: petit malin
• German: Witzbold
• Italian: ilare, battuta, facezia, spiritosaggine, freddura
• Russian: остря́к
• Spanish: imaginativo, divertido , hilaro, hilara

1. (ambitransitive, chiefly, archaic) Know, be aware of (constructed with of when used intransitively).

   You committed terrible actions — to wit, murder and theft — and should be punished accordingly.

   They are meddling in matters that men should not wit of.

   • 1611, King James Version, Exodus 2:3–4:

     And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.

   • 1849, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, St. Luke the Painter, lines 5–8

     but soon having wist

     How sky-breadth and field-silence and this day

     Are symbols also in some deeper way,

     She looked through these to God and was God’s priest.

• French: savoir, connaître
• German: wissen
• Russian: знать

• (Southern American English) (before consonants) IPA: /wɪt/, (before yod) /wɪtʃ/

1. (Southern American English) Pronunciation spelling of with#English|with.

wit (plural wits)

1. (hunting, AU) Initialism of waterfowl identification test